Britain's Got Talent cancelled until 2022 due to Covid restrictions - ITV confirms

Anthony McPartlin, David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden, Simon Cowell and Declan Donnelly attend the Britain's Got Talent 2020 Manchester photocall at The Lowry on February 05, 2020 in Manchester
(Image credit: Getty)

ITV Britain's Got Talent has been cancelled until 2022 due to Covid restrictions making filming impossible, ITV has today confirmed.

ITV's Britain's Got Talent is officially cancelled until 2022 ITV has now confirmed.

It comes as it was reported earlier this week that BGT was 'almost certain to be scrapped' this year due to Covid restrictions, with bosses looking at resting the show until 2022.

The popular ITV show had already been pushed back to later in the year after the ongoing national lockdown restrictions meant auditions could not be held as usual in January and February.

And now Thames TV and Simon Cowell's company Syco, have officially decided to pull the plug on the show for 2021.

In a statement, ITV confirmed the news and said: “Despite everyone at ITV, Thames and Syco doing their best to make it happen, and with our absolute priority of safeguarding the well-being and health of every person involved in the programme from judges, hosts and contestants to all of the crew and audience, the decision has been made to – unfortunately - move the record and broadcast of the 15th series of Britain’s Got Talent."

One of the main processes of the audition is doing them in front of a live audience.

Britain's Got Talent 2020 start date has been announced

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A source previously told MailOnline, "The nature of Britain’s Got Talent means we have all sorts of contestants from all sorts of places – home and abroad - taking part. While many people will have been vaccinated by the summer it remains unclear what the restrictions on mass mingling and on travel will be, so there is absolutely no guarantees production can go ahead."

It was reported that ITV bosses were drawing up TV schedules for the coming year and now it's confirmed that the new series of Britain's Got Talent will not feature.

A source told The Sun, simply pushing back the show once more will prove difficult, especially with the judges Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, David Walliams, Ashley Banjo who stood in for Simon Cowell last year, and crew all having other commitments.

Meanwhile, the BGT postponement will come as another blow to Simon Cowell, 61, who is recovering after breaking his back by falling off his electric bike. As it's reported the music mogul didn't pay himself any wages from October 2019 to March 2020 after he saw his former company profits fall by £30m.

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Simon resigned from the business SimCo Ltd in September 2020, the entertainment company, which covers hit shows Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor.

Selina Maycock
Senior Entertainment Writer

Selina is currently a Senior Entertainment Writer for Goodto.com, formerly Senior Entertainment writer for Woman&Home, and My Imperfect Life with more than 16 years of experience in newspapers and magazines. She currently writes a mix of Entertainment news - including celebrity births, weddings, reporting the the latest news about the Royal kids Prince George, Charlotte, Louis, Archie and Lilibet as well as Family news stories from baby names to store closures and product recall warnings. Before joining Future Publishing, Selina graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2006 with a degree in Journalism. She is fully NCTJ and NCE qualified and has 100wpm shorthand. When she's not interviewing celebrities you can find her exploring new countryside walking routes, catching up with friends over good food, or making memories.